"Because I knew the governor would not have it. Money and rank and those sort of things are not particularly charming to me. But still things should go together. It is all very well for you and me to be pals, but of course it will be expected that Mary should marry some—"
"Some swell?"
"Some swell, if you will have it."
"You mean to call yourself a swell?"
"Yes I do," said Silverbridge, with considerable resolution. "You ought not to make yourself disagreeable, because you understand all about it as well as anybody. Chance has made me the eldest son of a Duke and heir to an enormous fortune. Chance has made my sister the daughter of a Duke, and an heiress also. My intimacy with you ought to be proof at any rate to you that I don't on that account set myself up above other fellows. But when you come to talk of marriage, of course it is a serious thing."
"But you have told me more than once that you have no objection on your own score."
"Nor have I."
"You are only saying what the Duke will think."
"I am telling you that it is impossible, and I told you so before. You and she will be kept apart, and so—"
"And so she'll forget me."